Afghanistan Claims 28 Militants Killed in Nuristan; Pakistan Rejects Allegations

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that its forces killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others in the northeastern province of Nuristan, alleging that the group had crossed from neighboring Pakistan. The operation took place on Saturday in Kamdesh district, according to a ministry statement posted on X.

The ministry claimed that several Islamic State-affiliated groups had been sent from Pakistan with the backing of Pakistani authorities, accusing them of seeking to carry out "acts of subversion and creating insecurity." It further alleged that most of those involved were former members of Afghanistan's military who served under the previous government, which was ousted when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

According to the Afghan statement, Pakistani intelligence agencies had brought these individuals to Pakistan with promises of asylum in foreign countries and high salaries. Instead, the ministry said, they were taken to camps run by Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies, given brief military training, and sent back into Afghanistan to create instability in parts of Nuristan, which borders Pakistan's northern Chitral district. The ministry urged young people and former military personnel who had been "deceived" not to fall victim to what it called enemy conspiracies.

Pakistan's Ministry of Information swiftly rejected the allegations, calling them "frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth." In a post on X, the ministry said Pakistan "categorically rejects" claims that its security forces or intelligence agencies were involved in clashes in Nuristan or elsewhere in Afghanistan. It also denied recruiting or training former Afghan security personnel or facilitating Islamic State or other militants.

The ministry said Afghanistan had provided no evidence to support its allegations, including identities, documents, communications or forensic material. It dismissed a video circulating on social media as showing only a few unarmed people and described it as part of a "pre-planned video shoot" by Afghanistan's Taliban government. Pakistan further said the presence and activities of militant groups in Afghanistan had been documented in reports by the United Nations and other international organizations, accusing Kabul of trying to "manufacture a Pakistani connection" to obscure what it described as the continued presence of militants in Afghanistan.

The latest hostilities followed Pakistani airstrikes on Monday on sites in eastern Afghanistan that Pakistan described as militant hideouts. Pakistan said the strikes killed 28 militants, while Afghan authorities said three civilians were killed, a toll confirmed by the United Nations.

Tensions between the two countries have increased in recent days, with cross-border fighting and Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan territory adding to longstanding disputes over militant activity along their border. Afghanistan does not recognize its frontier with Pakistan as an international border. The countries share a 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) boundary known as the Durand Line.

Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan's Taliban government of allowing the Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to operate from Afghan territory and carry out attacks inside Pakistan. The TTP is separate from Afghanistan's Taliban but is allied with it. Kabul denies providing the group a safe haven and has rejected Pakistan's accusations.